


Incidents

by Isilloth



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 08:07:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21032990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isilloth/pseuds/Isilloth
Summary: Anarietta and Syanna have to face incidents that took place on Toussaint graveyards.





	Incidents

**Author's Note:**

  * For [angledust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angledust/gifts).

Anarietta came to the door of Corvo Bianco and knocked. The property looked abandoned and the witcher didn’t respond to her call, but she hoped that he would be home. She looked at Syanna, who stood behind her with her arms crossed. Her sister was convinced that they didn’t need the witcher, but Anarietta remembered how much he helped the last time. This time the matters were also serious.

The door opened up. The majordomo, who Anarietta hired for Geralt, stood there.

“Your grace,” he said, bowing. “Welcome.”

“Where is Geralt?” Anarietta didn’t waste her time for greetings. “Why he didn’t respond for my calls?”

“Mister Geralt left.”

“How it comes? Where? When comes back?”

“To Velen, with his daughter and lady Yennefer. He didn’t say when he will come back.”

Anarietta cursed quietly. Syanna watched this, not changing her position. Her whole attitude expressed disdain.

“Come on, Anarietta. I said we would have to handle it alone.”

Majordomo bowed again when they left to the horses. The situation was so serious that the duchess decided to go to the witcher by herself, and she didn’t know what to do next.

Recently, on several cemeteries, the dead had risen. But it wasn’t any miraculous resurrection. The undead, or the zombies, as someone called them, where dangerous, they attacked people who went nearby. The vicinity of cemeteries was deserted, people were afraid of the zombies. Anarietta sent the knights to defeat them. Luckily, the zombies weren’t everlasting, they eventually fell and crumbled into dust. But there were few victims, attacked by zombies, unguarded. And the incidents repeated. Some sorcerer or sorceress had to be guilty of this. And who was better in investigations and know the magicians better than Geralt? Certainly not Anarietta. Or Syanna, even given her experience in crime.

They came back to the castle in silence. Anarietta thought about their next move. She decided they do it in person – she cannot trust her knights in such serious matter. Syanna would help her, she was intelligent and cunning, someone with her nerves would be indispensable. Besides this, it would be a good occasion to repair their troubled relationship. Anarietta rebuked for that thought. She should think about her subjects right now, not her private life.

“We don’t come back to the palace. Let’s go to the Mère-Lachaiselongue Cemetery,” Anarietta mentions the cemetery where the latest incident had happened. The remains of zombies still should be there. The remains of a poor village girl who was killed by them, luckily, was already taken and prepared to the burial. But they probably should investigate also her remains.

“I see you decided to investigate,” Syanna noticed with a wry smile.

“Do I have any other option? I need to care for my people.”

“I see.”

The duchess and her sister entered the cemetery. It was a mess. Some of the tombstones where broken or overthrown and there was blood on the ground. The ground by some graves was dug up. There were laying dust on the main alley – remains of zombies who attacked here. Anarietta and Syanna dismounted.

“They don’t seem to have any particular goal. The victims are completely random. Or so we think” Syanna said.

“Yes, you’re right. They only goal seemed to be disorder in Toussaint.”

“So, maybe they are our enemy?” Syanna asked, raising dust from the ground and examining it closely.

“Or rather enemy of the state.”

Anarietta wondered if there truly were any enemies of the state there, in Toussaint. The country was so calm and peaceful. And almost apolitical. And there, some sorcerer was up to something, here, in this paradise. Once again their peace was unsettled.

Anarietta further investigated the graves from which the zombies had emerged. Also, there wasn’t any distinctive pattern. The cemetery needed some cleaning.

“Let’s go to the catacombs, maybe we find there something.”

Following Syanna suggestion, they came down to the underground. And it was a brilliant idea.

Down there was the summoning circle, written in blood. It was interrupted at some points, probably to stop working. Around was laying also some papers and candles. The sorcerer (or sorceress) must have left the catacombs in a hurry.

“It must have been their blood. I heard you must use your own to summon something. It had to be powerful necromancer to create so many zombies,” Syanna said.

“And in so many places… He, or she, had to be our great enemy, to start such stir. Maybe we would found something in these papers.”

The women started to collect the papers. They were written some spells, probably summoning, which they didn’t understand. Anarietta thought they could use help from a mage… But on one of these cards was something they could understand. The list of cemeteries, which was compliant with the places where up to this moment the attacks was placed. After the Mère-Lachaiselongue, there were a few more places… Probably the one who was to be next places of zombies appearance.

“Look, Syanna, the next is Orlémurs Cemetery, I don’t know if there are any catacombs… They would have to make summoning circle at the fresh air, somewhere near the cemetery… Nobody ventures around the cemetery at night, or, these days, also in sunlight. We need to make an ambush. We would need some help.”

“Whose help? Your knights-errant?”

“Do we have anyone else? We can’t go there by ourselves, we wouldn’t defeat a sorcerer alone.”

“Well, I doubt we would defeat it with help of knights neither.”

“But we have to try.”

They came back to the castle and Anarietta called most renowned knights to the throne room. Syanna, as always since the duchess rehabilitated her, stood on her right. Many were reluctant to this, but Anarietta was relentless and stubborn to make her sister place in the court. She presented her plan to the knights and appointed guards to the Orlémurs Cemetery. She was determined to, together with Syanna, take part in the capture of the sorcerer, who was the cause of all these incidents. She decided to make a meeting point at tenement house next to the cemetery, who belongs to the state. She and Syanna were to wait there for the sign from knights who guarded cemetery. It was the compromise they settle with the knights who didn’t want the duchess to risk. But would they do anything properly without her supervision? She doubted it.

Their prepared dimeritium handcuffs, which was particularly hard to find and wait till the sign.

First night they just sat there, undisturbed, and similarly it was the second night. But the third was different.

“Do you think they would attack again? Maybe they know we know what they plan?” Syanna asked when the midnight was passing, and still was no sign from the knights.

“We had to hope they would try. We had to catch them. But they may attack elsewhere. I hope it wouldn’t be the case…”

The moment she expressed her doubts the door to their chamber opened up.

“Your Grace, your grace! There is a man at the cemetery, he seemed to prepare for some ceremony. He acts funny.”

“We got to go! Catch him. Who else would visit cemeteries these days? Do you send for other knights?” The support was waiting at the lower quarters of the tenement house. She hoped they were ready.

They left the chamber, taking the handcuffs. The knights were waiting at the entrance, in full readiness.

“We have to make it discreet,” the duchess said. “He can’t see us up to the point it would be too late. Surround the cemetery. Let no one leave it. Me, Syanna, sire de Launfal and sire Evalin-Evalan go to the cemetery and catch the sorcerer. We have to do this so he didn’t saw us, he would be probably consumed by his dark arts. Let’s go.”

The knights in complete silence followed them. Right in the entrance to the cemetery, most of them left them and surrounded the place. Anarietta hoped it would be sufficient. The group appointed to catch the sorcerer entered the graveyard. They saw the man who was painting the summoning circle behind the trees. He probably didn’t see them. Yet. Anarietta prepared the handcuffs, while Syanna withdrew her dagger and knights their blades. The man started to recite some spells. Anarietta almost jumped when the ground started to move. They approached the man who, although he had to see them, didn’t stop to enchant. They run to the sorcerer. The ground has moved and the undead rose. Then the man in circle smiled. Syanna tried to reach for him, but the invisible wall stopped her. And the zombies were attacking. The knights engaged in battle shielding the women.

“We have to interrupt the circle!” Syanna tried to do this but the invisible wall was impenetrable.

“I had an idea!”

Anarietta took the dimeritium handcuffs and, using them, she started to wipe off the circle. To her relief, it works, the metal defeated the barrier and she breached the circle. Just in time, the knights were already at the end, and some zombie caught her hand.

At the moment when Anarietta managed to interrupt the line, all zombies turned into dust. The sorcerer seemed to be terrified. He started to form the energy in his hands, but Syanna hit him in the face, with fist reinforced with an iron handle of the dagger. The blood started to drip from his nose and he deconcentrated, so the ball of power from his nose disappeared. He tried to compose himself again, but then Anarietta caught his hands and put on them the handcuffs.

“Please, no!” the sorcerer tried to snatch hands out of the shackles, visibly weakened.

“Take him to the dungeons,” Anarietta ordered de Laufnal. “Tomorrow we will investigate him. I don’t know why he attacked us.”

“I think I may know,” Syanna exclaimed. All eyes were on her.

“Do you know him?”

“Yes. It’s Hervo Asaro, mage I met when I was… with my gang. We assaulted him and… killed his partner. I wasn’t a saint, I must admit, but I didn’t expect he would want to revenge on your subjects… I didn’t know he knows who I am.”

The sorcerer snorted.

“When you killed Ejiro, I used every spell to track you. I had your dagger, and I made your magical print. So I know your name. When I heard you go back to the Toussaint, and you are back in favour I decided to attack your kingdom, as it would be easier than targeting you directly. And I knew you would try to fight it by yourself. I thought I would manage to kill you! And I would if not those damn dimeritium.”

Anarietta was a bit confused. Once again her country was threatened because of Syanna. And yet she forgave her sister, and she decided to stick to it. She had to punish this Hervo, but she didn’t have to make it very harsh… But it was a risk he would threaten Syanna again. She would have to find some wise compromise. And she had to remember people died because of him.

They took the mage to the dungeons. At least tomorrow her people will be safe.


End file.
